Santa Monica Pier Carousel

This carousel is the Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel #62. It was built in 1922 for Cumberland Park in Nashville, Tennessee where it remained until about 1941. From 1942 until 1947 it was at the Venice Amusement Pier, Venice, California which was shut down in 1946. Prior to the demolition of that pier in 1947, it was moved to the nearby Santa Monica Pier where it became the third carousel to be housed in the Looff Hippodrome, a National Historic Landmark built in 1916. Completely restored in 1990, it is a three row carousel with two chariots and 44 original hand carved horses (28 inside jumpers and 16 outside standers). Prior to 2002 it only had horses. But since then, when Ed Roth, a modern master carousel carver, did additional restoration work on the carousel, "guest" animals, including a goat, a rabbit, and even a triceratops which he has carved are periodically placed on it in a couple of places where an original horse once stood. Also of note is that this is the carousel that was featured in the movie "The Sting" starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

This carousel is the Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel #62. It was built in 1922 for Cumberland Park in Nashville, Tennessee where it remained until about 1941. From 1942 until 1947 it was at the Venice Amusement Pier, Venice, California which was shut down in 1946. Prior to the demolition of that pier in 1947, it was moved to the nearby Santa Monica Pier where it became the third carousel …  (read more)

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